Description

The gray fox is mainly distinguished from most other canids by its grizzled upper parts, black stripe down its tail and strong neck, while the skull can be easily distinguished from all other North American canids by its widely separated temporal ridges that form a U-shape. There is little sexual dimorphism, save for the females being slightly smaller than males. The gray fox ranges from 76 to 112.5 cm (29.9 to 44.3 in) in total length. The tail measures 27.5 to 44.3 cm (10.8 to 17.4 in) of that length and its hind feet measure 100 to 150 mm (3.9 to 5.9 in). The gray fox typically weighs 3.6 to 7 kg (7.9 to 15.4 lb), though exceptionally can weigh as much as 9 kg (20 lb).[2][3][4] It is readily differentiated from the red fox by the lack of "black stockings" that stand out on the latter and the stripe of black hair that runs along the middle of the tail as well as individual guard hairs being banded with white, gray, and black.[5] The gray fox displays white on the ears, throat, chest, belly and hind legs.[5] In contrast to all Vulpes and related (Arctic and fennec) foxes, the gray fox has oval (instead of slit-like) pupils.[6]

The dental formula of the U. cinereoargenteus is 3.1.4.23.1.4.3 = 42.[5]

Origin and genetics

The gray fox appeared in North America during the mid-Pliocene (Hemphillian land animal age) epoch 3.6 million years ago (AEO) with the first fossil evidence found at the lower 111 Ranch site, Graham County, Arizona with contemporary mammals like the giant sloth, the elephant-like Cuvieronius, the large-headed llama, and the early small horses of Nannippus and Equus.[7] Genetic analyses of the fox-like canids confirmed that the gray fox is a distinct genus from the red foxes (Vulpes spp.). Genetically, the gray fox often clusters with two other ancient lineages, the east Asian raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and the African bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis).[8] The chromosome number is 66 (diploid) with a fundamental number of 70. The autosomes include 31 pairs of sub-graded subacrocentrics, but one only pair of metacentrics.[9] Faunal remains at two northern California cave sites confirm the presence of the gray fox during the late Pleistocene.[10] Genetic analysis has shown that the gray fox migrated into the northeastern United States post-Pleistocene in association with the Medieval Climate Anomaly warming trend.[11] Recent mitochondrial genetic studies suggests divergence of North American eastern and western gray foxes in the Irvingtonian mid-Pleistocene into separate sister taxa.[12]

The gray fox's dwarf relative, the Channel Island fox, is likely descended from mainland gray foxes.[13] These foxes apparently were transported by humans to the islands and from island to island, and are descended from a minimum of 3–4 matrilineal founders.[12] The genusUrocyon is considered to be the most basal of the living canids.[14]

Distribution and habitat

The species occurs throughout most rocky, wooded, brushy regions of the southern half of North America from southern Canada (Manitoba through southeastern Quebec)[15] to the northern part of South America (Venezuela and Colombia), excluding the mountains of northwestern United States.[16] It is the only canid whose natural range spans both North and South America.[17] In some areas, high population densities exist near brush-covered bluffs.[5]

Behavior

A yawning gray fox, northern Florida

The gray fox's ability to climb trees is shared only with the Asian raccoon dog among canids. Its strong, hooked claws allow it to scramble up trees to escape many predators, such as the domestic dog or the coyote,[18] or to reach tree-bound or arboreal food sources. It can climb branchless, vertical trunks to heights of 18 meters and jump from branch to branch.[19] It descends primarily by jumping from branch to branch, or by descending slowly backwards as a domestic cat would do. The gray fox is primarily nocturnal or crepuscular and makes its den in hollow trees, stumps or appropriated burrows during the day. Such gray fox tree dens may be located 30 ft above the ground.[6] Prior to European colonization of North America, the red fox was found primarily in boreal forest and the gray fox in deciduous forest, but now the red fox is dominant in most of the eastern United States since they are the more adaptable species to development and urbanization.[20] In areas where both red and gray foxes exist, the gray fox is dominant.[21]

Reproduction

Gray fox, showing black tail stripe, Sierra Nevada

The gray fox is assumed monogamous. The breeding season of the gray fox varies geographically; in Michigan, the gray fox mates in early March, in Alabama, breeding peaks occur in February. The gestation period lasts approximately 53 days. Litter size ranges from 1 to 7, with a mean of 3.8 young per female. The sexual maturity of females is around 10 months of age. Kits begin to hunt with their parents at the age of 3 months. By the time that they are four months old, the kits will have developed their permanent dentition and can now easily forage on their own. The family group remains together until the autumn, when the young males reach sexual maturity, then they disperse.[9] Out of a study of nine juvenile gray foxes, only the males dispersed up to 84 km. The juvenile females stayed within proximity of the den within 3 km and always returned.[22] On the other hand, adult gray foxes showed no signs of dispersion for either gender.[23]

The annual reproductive cycle of males has been described through epididymal smears and become fertile earlier and remain fertile longer than the fertility of females.[9]

Dens are used at any time during the year but mostly during whelping season. Dens are built in brushy or wooded regions and are less obvious than the dens of the red fox. Logs, trees, rocks, burrows, or abandoned dwellings serve as suitable den sites.[5]

Diet

A gray fox at night

Adult male and female gray fox

The gray fox is an omnivorous, solitary hunter. It frequently preys on the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) in the eastern U.S., though it will readily catch voles, shrews, and birds. In California, the gray fox primarily eats rodents, followed by lagomorphs, e.g. jackrabbit, brush rabbit, etc.[18] In some parts of the Western United States (such as in the Zion National Park in Utah), the gray fox is primarily insectivorous and herbivorous.[21] Fruit is an important component of the diet of the gray fox and they seek whatever fruits are readily available, generally eating more vegetable matter than does the red fox (Vulpes vulpes).[2]

Bibliography

External links

Blue Range Wilderness, along with Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Gila Wilderness, is part of Gila National Forest. It is located on the western border of New Mexico and west of U.S. Route 180 between Reserve and Glenwood. The wilderness is crossed by the Mogollon Rim. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1980.It is home to wildlife species including black bear, pronghorn, bald eagle, peregrine falcon, elk, white-tailed deer, osprey, mule deer, bobcat, spotted owl, cougar, timber wolf, gray fox, white-nosed coati, collared peccary, bighorn sheep, and wild turkey.

The adjacent and larger Blue Range Primitive Area of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona was also recommended for Wilderness status in 1971, but only the New Mexico portion has been acted upon by Congress.

(from Latin, canis, “dog”) is a lineage of carnivorans that includes domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals, dingoes, and many other extant and extinct dog-like mammals. A member of this family is called a canid (, ).The cat-like feliforms and dog-like caniforms emerged within the Carnivoramorpha 43 million years before present. The caniforms included the fox-like genus Leptocyon whose various species existed from 34 million years ago (Mya) before branching 11.9 Mya into Vulpini (foxes) and Canini (canines).Canids are found on all continents except Antarctica, having arrived independently or accompanied human beings over extended periods of time. Canids vary in size from the 2-m-long (6 ft 7 in) gray wolf to the 24-cm-long (9.4 in) fennec fox. The body forms of canids are similar, typically having long muzzles, upright ears, teeth adapted for cracking bones and slicing flesh, long legs, and bushy tails. They are mostly social animals, living together in family units or small groups and behaving co-operatively. Typically, only the dominant pair in a group breeds, and a litter of young is reared annually in an underground den. Canids communicate by scent signals and vocalizations. They are very intelligent. One canid, the domestic dog, long ago entered into a partnership with humans and today remains one of the most widely kept domestic animals.

Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, located in Carteret County, North Carolina, is on the end of a peninsula marking the southern end of Pamlico Sound. The refuge lies five miles (8 km) east of the Atlantic Ocean and about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Beaufort, North Carolina. Established in 1964, the refuge consists of approximately 11,000 acres (45 km2) of irregularly flooded, brackish marsh and 3,480 acres (14.1 km2) of pocosin and woodland habitat. The dominant marsh plants include black needlerush, saltmarsh cordgrass, saltmeadow hay, and saltgrass. The woodland areas are dominated by loblolly, longleaf and pond pine. Live oak is also abundant on some upland sites. The marsh and surrounding waters provide wintering habitat for thousands of ducks and nesting habitat for colonial waterbirds.

Darwin's fox or Darwin's zorro (Lycalopex fulvipes) is an endangered canine from the genus Lycalopex. It is also known as the zorro chilote or zorro de Darwin in Spanish and lives on Nahuelbuta National Park (Araucanía Region), the Valdivian Coastal Range (Los Ríos Region) in mainland Chile and Chiloé Island. This small, dark canine weighs 1.8 to 3.95 kg (4.0 to 8.7 lb), has a head-and-body length of 48 to 59 cm (19 to 23 in) and a tail that is 17.5 to 25.5 cm (7 to 10 in).Darwin's fox was first collected from San Pedro Island off the coast of Chile by the naturalist Charles Darwin in 1834. It was long held that Darwin's fox was a subspecies of the South American gray fox (L. griseus); however, the discovery of a small population of Darwin's fox on the mainland in Nahuelbuta National Park in 1990 and subsequent genetic analysis has clarified the fox's status as a unique species. In 2012 and 2013 the presence of the Darwin's fox at Oncol Park, Alerce Costero National Park and the Valdivian Coastal Reserve was confirmed through camera trapping.

Foxes are small-to-medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. Foxes have a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or brush).

Twelve species belong to the monophyletic "true foxes" group of genus Vulpes. Approximately another 25 current or extinct species are always or sometimes called foxes; these foxes are either part of the paraphyletic group of the South American foxes, or of the outlying group, which consists of bat-eared fox, gray fox, and island fox. Foxes live on every continent except Antarctica. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) with about 47 recognized subspecies. The global distribution of foxes, together with their widespread reputation for cunning, has contributed to their prominence in popular culture and folklore in many societies around the world. The hunting of foxes with packs of hounds, long an established pursuit in Europe, especially in the British Isles, was exported by European settlers to various parts of the New World.

Frank Taberski (1889–1941) was a professional pocket billiards player from Schenectady, New York. Nicknamed "The Gray Fox," he won 10 world title challenge matches in a row. He was ranked number 7 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.

Frank Jaeger, better known by his codename Gray Fox is a fictional character and protagonist from Konami's Metal Gear series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, he is first appears in the series' original 1987 game Metal Gear, and is one of the few characters to appear in both the original 2D games and the later 3D games.

The character is first introduced in the original game as a high-ranking agent of FOXHOUND who goes missing during a mission to Outer Heaven, and is saved by fellow FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake. He goes missing during the events of the original game and its sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, during which he is revealed to have sided with Snake's enemy Big Boss; he is eventually defeated and left for dead by Snake.

Gray Fox is reintroduced in Metal Gear Solid as the Cyborg Ninja, a mysterious being wearing a powered armor exoskeleton and armed with a high-frequency blade. During Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND revolt at Shadow Moses, he confronts Solid Snake on several occasions, while also providing him advice via CODEC as a faceless contact named Deepthroat. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set twenty-five years before the original Metal Gear, also features a teenage Gray Fox using the codename Null. The character was positively received by critics, and is considered one of the best characters in Metal Gear; he is also frequently mentioned as one of the best ninjas in video gaming.

The United States Army Intelligence Support Activity (USAISA), frequently shortened to Intelligence Support Activity or Mission Support Activity, and nicknamed The Activity, the Army of Northern Virginia, or Office of Military Support, is a United States Army Special Operations unit originally subordinated to the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) but now part of the Joint Special Operations Command. It is tasked to collect actionable intelligence in advance of missions by other US special operations forces, especially 1st SFOD-D and DEVGRU in counter-terrorist operations.

USAISA was the official name of the unit from 1981 to 1989; previously it was known as the Field Operations Group (FOG), created in September 1980. In 1989, the then USAISA commander sent a telex "terminating" the USAISA term and his special access program Grantor Shadow, but the unit continued under a series of different Top Secret codenames which are changed every two years. Known codenames included Centra Spike, Torn Victor, Quiet Enable, Cemetery Wind, and Gray Fox.

The island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is a small fox that is native to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. There are six subspecies, each unique to the island it lives on, reflecting its evolutionary history.

The McFaddin and Texas Point National Wildlife Refuges are located in proximity in southern Jefferson County on the upper Texas coast at Sabine Pass. The refuges have a combined 105.96 square miles (274.4 km2) of fish and wildlife habitat. McFaddin, much the larger one, located at around 29°40′00″N 94°09′00″W, has a total area of 58,861.43 acres (238.20 km²), while the smaller Texas Point, located at around 29°42′00″N 93°53′00″W, has 8,952.02 acres (36.23 km²).Texas Point and McFaddin refuges supply important feeding and resting habitat for migrating and wintering populations of waterfowl using the Central Flyway. Feeding flocks of snow geese have exceeded 70,000 birds at McFaddin.

Dozens of migratory bird species use habitat on both refuges to feed, rest, nest and raise their young. McFaddin contains one of the densest populations of American alligators in Texas. Alligators are most easily seen during the spring, but are often visible throughout the summer and fall.

Mammal species native to Texas include the muskrat, North American river otter, American mink, raccoon, striped skunk, Virginia opossum, nine-banded armadillo, gray fox and bobcat.

Large portions of both refuges are tidally influenced, creating estuarine environments important to a variety of fish, shrimp and crabs, as well as other life forms higher on the food chain that feed on such organisms. These estuaries are productive communities and are vital to the life cycle of many marine species. Some of the more commonly sought after fish found in refuge waters include red drum, flounder, alligator gar and blue catfish.

Located on the coast, Sea Rim State Park borders McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge.

Otis Hinkley Stocksdale (Old Gray Fox) (August 7, 1871 – March 15, 1933) was an American professional baseball player who played four seasons for the Washington Senators, Boston Beaneaters and Baltimore Orioles.

He was born in Arcadia, Maryland, and died in Pennsville, New Jersey at the age of 61.

Silacayoapam District is located in the northwest of the Mixteca Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.The climate is temperate, with average temperature of 20.6°C. The warmest area is the municipality of San Nicolás Hidalgo (21.1°C) and the coolest is San Mateo Nejapam (19.6°C).

Annual rainfall is about 920 mm, with highest rainfall in September.

The region has coniferous forests that include ceiba, huanacastle, pine, strawberry, moral, and oak.

The South American foxes (Lycalopex), commonly called raposa in Portuguese, or zorro in Spanish, are a genus of the family Canidae from South America. Despite their name, they are not true foxes, but are a unique canid genus related to wolves and jackals, which some somewhat resemble foxes due to convergent evolution. The South American gray fox, Lycalopex griseus, is the most common species, and is known for its large ears and a highly marketable, russet-fringed pelt.

The oldest known fossils belonging to the genus were discovered in Chile, and date from 2.0 to 2.5 million years ago, in the mid- to late Pliocene.

The South American gray fox (Lycalopex griseus), also known as the Patagonian fox, the chilla or the gray zorro, is a species of Lycalopex, the "false" foxes. It is endemic to the southern part of South America.

The Grey Fox is a 1982 Canadian biographical Western film directed by Phillip Borsos and written by John Hunter. It is based on the true story of Bill Miner, an American stagecoach robber who staged Canada's first train robbery on September 10, 1904. The film stars Richard Farnsworth as Miner. The cast also features Jackie Burroughs, Ken Pogue, Wayne Robson, Gary Reineke and Timothy Webber.

The genus Urocyon (from the Greek word for "tailed dog") is a genus that contains two (or possibly three; see next paragraph) living Western Hemisphere foxes in the family Canidae; the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and the closely related island fox (Urocyon littoralis), which is a dwarf cousin of the gray fox; as well as one fossil species, Urocyon progressus.Urocyon and the raccoon dog are the only canids able to climb trees. Urocyon is one of the oldest fox genera still in existence. Evidence of the Cozumel fox, a disputed extinct or critically endangered third species, was found on the island of Cozumel, Mexico. The Cozumel fox, which has not been scientifically described to date, is a dwarf form like the island fox, but a bit larger, being up to three-quarters the size of the gray fox.The genus Urocyon is considered to be the most basal of the living canids.

Urocyon progressus is an extinct canid carnivoran mammal of the genus Urocyon, and was most common in North America during the Blancan Stage on the geologic timescale. Fossil samples have been found in both Kansas and Texas. It may have been the ancestor of the modern gray fox.

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